States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

interpreting these provisions. Subsequently, we will take up the
body of general principles that govern states of emergency under
international human rights law with the main focus on the ICCPR
and the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, as well as
a description of the ICCPR’s enforcement mechanisms. It should,
however, be remembered that it is not only international human
rights instruments (such as the ICCPR), to which this discussion is
restricted, that establish governing principles in relation to human
rights in crisis contexts. In what is a growing area of human rights
protection, general international and humanitarian law and the
laws of war also establish such principles, extending the
regulatory reach of human rights protection within the laws of
external and internal armed conLlict, and binding States as well as
non‐State actors.
4.1
General
Observations:
International
Human
Rights
Law
as
a
Legislative
and
Interpretive
Framework
of
Accommodation
Despite differences of emphasis and nuance, there is wide
consensus at the international level about the basic procedural
issues in the treatment of human rights during states of
emergency, the objective circumstances allowing a declaration, as
well as the substantive limits of permissible derogations. Similarly,
the treaty bodies policing both the ICCPR and the regional regimes
in Europe and the Inter‐American system display certain common
themes in their jurisprudence that shed light on the dynamics of
international protection of human rights which are violated within
States’ internal jurisdiction. In relation to Sri Lanka’s obligations
under the ICCPR, its First Optional Protocol, and the role of the
Human Rights Committee, moreover, the issue of enforcement has
become a matter of critical signiLicance following the Supreme
Court’s decision in the Singarasa
 Case. As a prelude to the review
116